


Painted Blind

by Innwich



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Cupid Sniper, Humor, M/M, Valentine's Day, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 13:24:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6007903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innwich/pseuds/Innwich
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sniper grew wings in time for Valentine’s Day, and Medic was unapologetic for everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Painted Blind

His mouth was full of cotton.

Sniper blinked groggily, and closed his mouth. There was a damp patch on the pillow where he’d been gnawing it in his sleep. His hat and sunglasses were gone. The starched pillowcase was scratching his face. Something heavy was covering the entirety of his bare back.

He was lying in someone else’s bed.

And, for some reason, he’d lost his shirt along the way.

“That’s freaky. What did you do to him?” Scout’s voice drifted from somewhere to Sniper’s left. Scout sounded too far away to be waiting by Sniper’s bedside like what good mates did for their friends. It sounded more like Scout was sitting on the other side of the room and talking with a mouthful of chewed lollies.

“Nothing much. It’s only a little back surgery,” Medic said.

“Looks like more than a little surgery to me,” Scout said. “I don’t know how you got him to agree to it. You’re freaking bad at lying, ‘cause you can’t stop laughing after the first sentence.”

“I never lie,” Medic said indignantly. “Though I may have, heh, omitted a few details.”

Sniper shifted his head on the pillow so he could see better. Scout was sitting on the side of a bed and stuffing his face with chocolates. Medic was standing behind Scout and wrapping a bandage around the top of Scout’s head.

They were in the base infirmary.

Now he remembered why he was here. He’d pulled a muscle in his lower back because he’d missed a rung in the ladder when he’d been climbing down from a ledge, so he’d landed flat on his arse. He’d been lucky none of his teammates had seen him fall like a bloody idiot; he’d never hear the end of it. When he’d found that he couldn’t straighten up without feeling like a million needles had been stabbing into his back, he’d gone to see Medic so he wouldn’t have to hobble around the base like an old man with a bad back.

What he couldn’t figure out was why Medic thought it was a good idea to put something heavy on his back to smother him into the bed.

“Ugh,” Sniper muttered into his pillow.

“Ooh, you’re awake,” Medic said. “I’ll be with you in a moment!”

“I’ll finish this up myself.” Scout got up from the bed and tugged the unfinished bandaging out of Medic’s hands. The bandage on his head unraveled slightly. “I’m leaving before Sniper murders your face for his trophy wall.”

Medic handed him a bottle of pills from a medicine cabinet. “Ach. You need to stop listening to Demo’s horrible stories. He makes all of us sound like murderous lunatics.”

“Nah, he doesn’t tell stories about everyone,” Scout said. “Just the scariest guys on the team, so, basically, Pyro and then you and then Snipes.”

“ _Nein_!” Medic cried. “I’m the scariest of us all!”

“Whatever, doc. I’m going,” Scout said, stuffing the bottle of pills into his pocket. “I’ll see you two chuckleheads at breakfast if ya ain’t dead.”

“I’ll murder his face before he murders mine!” Medic shouted after Scout as the door swung close.

Sniper could only lie on his front as Medic approached his bed with a clipboard and a pen. He was pretty sure Medic was only pretending to use the clipboard to look like a proper doctor. Sniper had once snuck a look at the documents clipped to the clipboards when he’d been in the infirmary for a vaccination, and the papers had been covered in messily doodled games of tic-tac-toe.

“Is your back hurting, my friend?” Medic said.

Sniper moved his shoulder, and grunted at the dull ache in his shoulder blades. “Not as badly as before. But my back is still sore. I thought you said you could fix it.”

“Well, yes, I did fix it. The pain could be worse! Like when I was cutting your back open.”

Sniper frowned disgruntledly, which didn’t look as intimidating as it usually did when half of his face was smushed into a pillow. “And why in the bloody world would you be cutting me open?”

“Heh, you’ll see. Here, let me help you sit up,” Medic said.

Sniper rolled to his side, pushed himself up to sit up on the edge of his bed, and was nearly thrown off balance. He would’ve fallen onto his back if Medic weren’t grabbing his shoulder.

The heavy thing on his back hadn’t slipped off of him.

Sniper turned his head, and stared.

There were two massive white wings sprouting out of his shoulder blades.

“They’re fully functional too. What do you think? It is certainly one of my proudest achievements this month,” Medic said.

“Hrm.” Sniper considered his wings, and plucked out a feather. He grimaced at the small sting of pain. The feather was large and white and longer than his forearm “What wings are these? They ain’t nothing I’ve ever seen on a bird.”

“These are wings from a giant owl. They are very difficult to get. I heard they are powerful enough to reflect bullets and bombs.”

“And you said they are fully functional, didn’t ya?” Sniper flexed his wings. It was like exercising powerful muscles that he didn’t know existed before. The gust of wind produced by the flapping of his wings sent pillows tumbling off the infirmary beds and made the fans whirl on the ceiling. Sniper grinned. “Sound like something I can really use, doc.”

Medic laughed in delight as his surgical tools were swept off his desk. “Ooh, yes. I cannot wait to see the looks on our enemies’ faces.”

  


* * *

  


Sniper had to cut holes in his uniform shirt and vest to make them fit over his new wings. Not that he minded. He had a dozen spare uniform shirts and vests tucked away in a box under his bunk bed. He wore his quiver over his shoulder because it wouldn’t go over his back. It took some getting used to, but other than that, he felt right as rain.

He would test out his wings, set up camp near the rocket, and kill everyone on the other team that tried to deliver the Australium briefcase to the rocket.

Today’s match was gonna be a breeze.

“Going for a festive look today?” Engineer said, sitting down next to Sniper on the locker room bench with a toolbox on his lap.

Scout chortled. “Yeah. Just need a diaper to complete the look, buddy.”

“What are you on about?” Sniper said.

“Sniper makes good baby Cupid,” Heavy said, feeding ammunition into his minigun. “Very good.”

“It’s Valentine’s Day today, partner,” Engineer said. “Don’t tell me you’ve plump forgot.”

Sniper had forgotten it was Valentine’s Day. For all he knew, it was still bloody January. It wasn’t like he kept a calendar in his van. “No point in keeping track of it when I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“I’ll wager Medic did this on purpose,” Engineer said. “Man has an odd sense of humor.”

“I heard that!” Medic yelled from behind the lockers.

“None of you seems surprised by these,” Sniper said, gesturing at his wings. “I was disappointed no one screamed at breakfast.”

“Well, Scout has been babbling about it all morning after he saw you in the infirmary.” Engineer shrugged. “Who knows, you may give the other team a good scare or two.”

Screaming started very soon on the battlefield after Sniper took to the air with a flap of his wings and headshot the enemy Sniper before the enemy Sniper reached the tunnels that would take him to the raised platforms that overlooked the rocket. Then Sniper turned in mid-air and shot the enemy Demoman, who was laying stickybombs near a full health pack behind a pile of boulders.

“Oh my God, run!” the enemy Scout screamed. “I knew it! After what happened last Halloween and Christmas, I knew Cupid would be trying to kill us on Valentine’s! I freaking knew it!”

“Quit running from love, mate,” Sniper said, grinning widely. He hadn’t had people fleeing from him for a long time. What was more, he’d died more than a few times to the enemy Scout sneaking up on him and beating him to death with a dead fish. It was payback time. “Stand still and let me take a good shot at ya.”

“ _Ja_ , shoot him!” Medic said from the ground below Sniper.

The beam from Medic’s medi-gun healed Sniper and more. Sniper was glowing with overheal and his wings were carrying him high in the sky despite the fact that it was his first time flying.

Sniper drew his bow, and aimed. His arrow caught the enemy Scout in mid-jump and pinned him right next to the enemy respawn gate. “Gotcha.”

“ _Wunderbar, mein Freund_ ,” Medic said.

“Thanks, doc,” Sniper said.

“Screaming eagles!” the enemy Soldier yelled, flying through the air towards Sniper with a shovel in his hand. The soles of his boots were burning with fire from rocket-jumping.

He was jumping in a straight trajectory for Sniper. All Sniper had to do was to fly higher and shoot an arrow through his head to send him back where he came from. The enemy Soldier’s body was pinned to the wall of the rocket right next to Demoman, who jumped.

“Got a special delivery for you, mate,” Sniper said. “Guess love always finds a way!”

Demoman tried to pull the arrow out of the enemy Soldier and get his body down from the rocket. He shook his fist up at Sniper and cussed up a storm. “It ain’t funny, lad!”

Sniper flew around in the sky, looking for an enemy to shoot. The medi-beam was following him like a kite line. A loud disagreement was happening on the ground. Medic laughed in Soldier’s bleeding face when Soldier yelled at him for not giving anyone else medical attention.

A bullet tore through Sniper’s wing. Shocked by the sudden pain in an unfamiliar part of his body, Sniper plummeted a few meters before he remembered he was still being overhealed by Medic. He flapped his wings and regained altitude. The gunfire had broken up the argument between Medic and Soldier. The enemy Heavy was studiously shooting at Sniper with his minigun, while being healed by the enemy Medic crouching behind him.

An unrelenting rain of bullets was heading Sniper’s way, but Sniper was high enough in the sky that only a few bullets hit their mark. Sniper said, “Nearly got me, lard arse, but you ain’t the only one with a doctor at your back!”

“Get them!” Medic said, hiding behind a boulder.

The enemy Heavy wasn’t moving much. He was hiding behind a doorway, but half of his face was exposed when he edged around the doorframe to shoot Sniper. That was more than enough for Sniper. He lined up his shot, and let two arrows loose in rapid succession.

The arrows pinned the enemy Heavy and the enemy Medic together to the wall behind them.

“This is Valentine’s Day, alright,” Sniper cackled. “It’s like bloody Romeo and Juliet down there.”

Medic was hooting with laughter. “We’ve nearly got them all! _Raus_! To the briefcase!”

“You got it, doc,” Sniper said.

The area where the Australium was located was separated from the rocket by a thick wall of rocks. Sniper flew over the wall while Medic took the sewer tunnel that led through the wall.

Sniper swooped down from the sky when he saw the Australium briefcase. It was left untouched on the pickup platform. A whistling sound alerted Sniper to the danger that had been hiding in his blind spot. Sniper dived down and dodged the rocket flying straight for him. The heat from the rocket singed his feathers. Now that Sniper wasn’t focused on the Australium briefcase lying just within charge, he saw that the area was littered with the bodies of his teammates. Sniper yelled loud enough for Medic to hear him in the tunnels, “Sentry ahead!”

“Will y’all look at that,” the enemy Engineer said. “What’ll they think of next? A flying monkey?”

A muffled laugh answered him.

Sniper flew back over the wall and tried to get a clean shot at the enemy Engineer now that he knew where he was, but a laser dot followed him in the sky whenever he peeked out to line up his shot. The enemy Engineer was wrangling the sentry gun. Sniper wouldn’t be able to stay out of the range of the sentry gun and shoot the enemy Engineer no matter how high he flew.

“I’m activating the charge!” Medic yelled. Energy crackled loudly as he ran out of the tunnel. In a blink of an eye, he was encased in a solid form of invincible energy. He aimed his medi-gun up at Sniper and fired.

Sniper was Übercharged. He could count on one hand the times that he’d taken the charge. He was brimming with energy. It was running through his enhanced heart and into his blood and bones and flesh. It was leaking out of his eyes and mouth and nose and ears and every pore in his skin.

He felt like he could do anything.

Sniper flew straight above the sentry gun. A rocket exploded in his face. He aimed, and pinned the enemy Engineer to the sentry gun with an arrow to the head. With no one to wrangle it, the sentry gun stopped shooting. But it’d only be a few seconds before it started shooting automatically again.

Sniper fired an arrow at the sentry gun.

The enemy Pyro stood in front of the sentry gun and airblasted the arrow back at Sniper.

Sniper could feel the Übercharge fading. The solid light on his skin was blinking like that from a dying sun. It’d be impossible to take down the sentry gun with the enemy Pyro airblasting away every shot he took at the gun.

Remembering what Medic had said about giant owls using their wings to reflect bullets, Sniper decided to take a leaf out of Mother Nature’s book. With a mighty flap of his wings, he knocked the arrow out of its trajectory and sent it flying back to the enemy Pyro. “Right back at ya!”

The arrow shot the enemy Pyro clean through the chest.

As the last of the Übercharge sparked through his body, Sniper flew down to the sentry gun and hit it with his kukri. The sentry gun exploded and showered the bodies of the enemy Engineer and the enemy Pyro with burnt, mechanical parts.

Sniper hovered over the bodies and admired his handiwork. Not every day he got to take down a sentry gun at close quarters. “Heh. Look at this. One big, happy family.”

“Spy!” Medic said.

On instinct, Sniper dodged to the left. The muscles on his back bunched, bracing for a cold knife to slice through his spine. Without thinking about it, his wings flapped and he shot straight into the sky.

The enemy Spy ain’t ever gonna get him now.

But when Sniper turned and looked back at the ground, he saw that the enemy Spy wasn’t coming after him.

Medic was swinging his bonesaw and chasing the enemy Spy, who was panting with the effort to close the distance between his knife and Medic’s back. They were running in circles around each other, like a dog chasing its tail and a tail chasing its dog.

“You’re delaying the inevitable. I’m only doing what your teammates wish they can do to you after you’ve left them to die,” the enemy Spy said. “They’ll thank me for killing you.”

“ _Ja_ , and they would be thanking you now if you were not such a terrible spy,” Medic taunted. “I heard you coming from a mile away.”

“No, you did not!” Spy snarled.

“Yes!”

“No!”

Medic abruptly made an about turn and switched the direction that he was running. The enemy Spy barely managed to switch gears in time to stop himself from running into Medic’s bonesaw.

Sniper hovered uncertainly above them. They were running too quickly in too small a circle. Medic was in Sniper’s line of fire. Sniper probably could hit the enemy Spy and stagger him, but he couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t take a few tries and he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t shoot Medic by mistake.

Medic might have put a pair of bloody wings on him without so much as warning, but Sniper had to admit that he was having more fun than he’d had in a long while. It was better than shooting at people from the top of water towers all day without budging from his spot. Reminded him of the afternoons he’d spent after school climbing up and down in tress to throw rocks at kids meaner than him.

Might as well do Medic a favor and get the pesky wanker off of his back without risking shooting him in the process.

“I’ve got an arrow right here for you, ya snake!” Sniper said without drawing his bow.

The enemy Spy looked up sharply with narrowed eyes, ready to dodge any arrow flying his way. In his distraction, his steps faltered. Medic took the chance and charged forwards. He closed their distance and sank his bonesaw into the back of the enemy Spy.

When Sniper landed on the ground, Medic had grabbed the Australium briefcase.

“We’ve killed everyone on their team.” Medic beamed. “Now, we only have to get the briefcase to the rocket. There is no one to stop us!”

“Can’t be too sure about that,” Sniper said. “Who knows if the spook is still creeping around. How about I give you a lift, doc?”

“Haha, I’m always happy to enjoy the fruits of my experiments,” Medic said.

Flying with someone piggybacking on him was a lot more difficult than Sniper had thought. For one, he couldn’t flap his wings as much as he would like without slapping Medic’s glasses off his face. But he’d be damned if he let Medic convinced him to carry him in his arms like a goddamn bride. He would probably pull his back again before he was half-way in the air.

It took a while, but they got back to the rocket. As soon as they landed on the elevating platform in front of the rocket, the platform was rising steadily to the top of the rocket, where they could deliver the Australium briefcase and launch the rocket.

“ _Danke_.” Medic dismounted from Sniper’s back. He was holding the Australium briefcase in one hand, his other hand a warm weight on Sniper’s shoulder.

Maybe Sniper should have seen what was coming, or maybe it was so far beyond the realm of anyone’s imagination that no one could have acted any different. Either way, Sniper spluttered and nearly choked on his own spit when Medic grabbed his face and planted a wet one on him.

Damn Europeans.

Always getting the drop on him.

“This is a happy day for us!” Medic crowed, as the rocket readied itself to be launched. “Well done, my friend!”

“Yeah, happy bloody Valentine’s Day to us,” Sniper said, slinging his bow over his shoulder. “Extra bloody.”


End file.
